Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Into the Belly of the Beast

I travel to NYC [midtown] this morning for some meetings and to see some museums. I'll be there through Thursday evening, so no new posts on Wednesday and Thursday.

Election turmoil in Iran continues. Those claims by the past leader of a resounding win seem far-fetched. Perhaps a big lie ?

Barry to bloviate more. What else is new?

Tonight I expect to have a Golden Kryptonite Martini as the "club" bar. It's quite a convivial place, but I know fewer and fewer people nowadays. Time marches on.

Congress seems unable to walk and chew gum at the same time. Financial regulatory overhaul is running into Barry's health care reform and climate change legislation.

My German is making good progress now. But that language sure has some weird constructions. Why would one separate a prefix from a verb and stick it at the end of a sentence or clause ? Weird. And these stem vowel changes are so common. They are a relic in English, too, of its Germanic roots. [e. g. drink, drank, drunk] Some linguists think these oddities go back to a melding of a Semitic language [Phoenician] to proto-German circa 500 B. C. E. Perhaps. This wierdness came from somewhere and not from early Indo-European.

I took Latin in high school and remember some. From a time and population movement perspective, Latin must be rather closer to Indo-European than many modern languages. And its grammar seems closer to Polish than to English, French, Spanish or German. Of course the words themselves are very different.

A language has two dimensions: its words and its grammar. Both are important for understanding linguistic roots. Too much attention is placed on simple word evolution. Grammar might be more important. I strongly recommend the books by John McWhorter on this subject and the Teaching Company CD course by him. He's an excellent lecturer and writer. and extremely knowledgeable without being pedantic.

A language is really a bundle of closely related dialects with one annointed "standard" dialect, usually from the region of capital city of the nation. Standard English comes from the London dialect; standard French from the Paris dialect; and Polish from the Warsaw dialect.

Enjoy the week. The blog will return Friday.

Word of the Day

"Clinal" - adjective [$10]; from cline - nounCline means 1. Biol. a graded sequence of differences within a species, etc.; 2. a continuum with an infinite number of gradations.Sentence: "All peoples of the world speak complex varieties of language, differing in clinal degree from one another and often not assignable as any one "thing". [from McWorter, The Story of Human Language", notes for the Teaching Company CD course, part 3, page 28.]

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is accepting comedian David Letterman's apology over the controversial joke directed at her daughter, but says she hopes "men who 'joke' about public displays of sexual exploitation of girls will soon evolve."

A. has a losing VP candidate ever been mentioned after the 2nd week in november? guess the right has that ticket for 12. palin/christ in 2012. CANT WAIT!

FedEx Corp.'s loss widened for its fiscal fourth quarter on higher-than projected write-downs related to its Kinko's business and as demand slumped.The shipping giant projected earnings this quarter far below analysts' forecasts. FedEx expects earnings of 30 cents to 45 cents a share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had projected 68 cents. Chief Financial Officer Alan B. Graf Jr. said the operating environment through November is expected to be "extremely difficult" as manufacturing activity is expected to be down from a year earlier through the summer

BigDaddy Mern(cigar crunched to side of mouth..talkin Mr Potter).."You mean ta tell me...a man with no debt,7 figures in assets,810 credit score,the best pot smoker in his class mind you....cant get a looooooooan??? What kinda penny ante savings and loan operation you runnin here?????..Youre God D@#$% right you'll get the manager"....

About Me

I have a pioneer mentality. My wife & I live in the woods - neighbors aren't visible except slightly in winter. Our "bunker" - hehe, really a fine home & barn - has plenty of security. We have four dogs: Krypto (age 9, Kelpie), Ava (age 13, Rat Terrier), Sky (Kelpie, age 5) and Lucky Star (age 1, kelpie). I don't take crap from anyone anymore, having enough resources & gear stocked up to survive in any circumstance.
I have three degrees from Harvard including a Ph. D. in a physical science, and an MS in Management from MIT. I worked as an investment banker for about 25 years, mainly in secured finance, at three major Wall Street firms and for the last 17 years with my partners at our own firm. I'm semi-retired now, managing some private corporations and business interests and doing my own trading & investing. This is not to boast, but to give you an idea I know a little about some subjects from experience.
The photo is my 1943 M16 half-track which I am restoring. These armored vehicles were ubiquitous in the US Army in World War II and Korea. It's driveable.